Chapter 3 154 155

153 3 Special Activities of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies H. August van Alphen Armando Basso Jacques Brotchi chapter 3 154 155 3.1 Publications of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies H. August van Alphen From the early days, it has been an ardent desire of the World Federation to have its own medium of communication to facilitate the dissemination of information between the Administrative Council and the membership and between the members themselves, and as a scientific platform. Over the years, various forms of bulletins, newsletters and publications in the field of neurosurgical science have been estab- lished and utilized for varying periods of time. In almost all cases, the production of these issues on a large scale and the worldwide distribution appeared to be a major problem and too great a financial burden for the Federation. With a single exception, therefore, these productions were short-lived. In recent years, electronic mail and the internet have proven to be very effective means for disseminating information - also for the World Federation; the problems of the past seem to have been solved. In this chapter, we will review the various publications of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies one by one. Bulletin of the World Federation Neurosurgical Societies In 1963, on the recommendation of the President of the World Federation, Dr. E. Busch (Denmark), the Administrative Council decided to start a News Bulletin in which announcements about neurosurgical affairs and items of interest would be published. Dr. W.B. Scoville (usa) was appointed Editor with the president and two secretaries as an advisory editorial board. This Bulletin, initially financed from Federation funds, was to be sent to all individual members of the member societies of the Federation. The secretaries of all neurosurgical societies throughout the world had tendered a list of officers, delegates and membership. This list was kept by the secretary as well as by the Bulletin. It was agreed that the individual societies would distribute the Bulletin to its members with the hope that other means might be found to defray the expenses. The following introduction written by President Busch appeared in the first issue published in May 1963. It is a great pleasure to me to open the first number of our Bulletin of the wfns. International friendship has played an important role in our specialty throughout the world. In the old days neurosurgeons were few and far between; consequently our few informal gatherings had a special warm perso- nal feeling - we knew each other and our families, and news of work going on in different places was easy to obtain. Times have changed and the number of neurosurgeons has increased enormously. In spite of this the atmosphere of the magnificent Congress in Washington showed that the old spirit of neurosurgery is unchanged and I know that many friendships between neurosurgeons of very different back- grounds, nationalities, and creeds, were cemented during those days. chapter 3 156 157 The aim of this Bulletin, under an editor who has done more than most to foster good will in international neurosurgery, is to let us keep in touch between meetings and to be a form of discussion. We hope that the various societies making up the wfns will use it to bring up questions of importance and will bring news of their activities and of important work going on in their different regions. Conditions for work in neurosurgery vary considerably in different coun- tries. Still, our aim is identical – perhaps best expressed by the president of the first little Section of Neurosurgery at the International Congress of Neu- rology in Copenhagen just before the war, Geoffrey Jefferson: ‘A thoughtful and vigorous pursuit of neurosurgery’. Good luck to all of you, to this new venture of ours, and we’ll meet in Copenhagen in 1965! The Bulletin was published twice a year. Over the years, the regular features of the Bulletin were the President’s page, Sec- retaries’ pages, Editor’s page, list of new officers and Administrative Council of the Federation, obituaries of the Federation officers, programme and scientific reports of the International Congress of Neurological Surgery, announcements and reports of national and international meetings and courses, historical notes of member societies, and updated listing of the neurosurgical member societies and their officers. Many articles were il- lustrated by photographs. From the beginning, the costs of production and mailing of the Bulletin were a tremendous worry to the Editor despite the fact that the secretarial expenses were zero. In the late sixties two issues a year were published and distributed to thirty-nine national societies. The costs ranged between us $ 1,200 and $ 1,800 per issue. Savings of us $ 500 to $ 900 were made due to receipts from advertising and us $ 300 to $ 400 through the courtesy of free air freight to Europe and South America provided by Scandi- navian Airlines and Varig Airlines, respectively. Thus the total costs per issue were between us $ 800 and $ 1,000. At the Interim Meeting in Ma- drid 1967, Dr. Scoville asked the Executive Committee for an annual allocation of us $ 1,500 for the next two years; this was approved. In New York two years later the Editor brought up the question of Cover of Bulletin of the wfns 1963-1981 chapter 3 156 157 publications of the wfns expanding the Bulletin to include scientific material in some form which would not directly compete with national scientific journals. The additional pages would contain news of recent material presented at the principal neurosurgical meetings of the world, collected from local secretaries or programme chairmen. The twenty- five percent increase in cost might be realized from advertising revenues. In 1973, the costs of the Bulletin had increased to us $ 1,000 per issue. To ensure continuation of the publication, it was felt necessary to establish a permanent sec- retariat and to increase the budget to us $ 1,200 for each number. Four years later, however, the treasurer of the Federation decided it would not be wise to sponsor the Bulletin any further, because it was gradually becoming too great a financial burden. The costs of a single issue had risen to us $ 5,000. Three alternatives were considered: continuing and enlarging the current Bulletin, creating a world journal which would hopefully pay for itself through advertisements, and, as a compro- mise, teaming up with an existing journal. A committee was formed, chaired by Dr. A.E. Walker (usa), President of the World Federation, to review the situation and come up with a solution. Two years later Dr. Walker reported on the conclusions of the committee. It was considered inadvisable to edit a new Federation Neurosurgical Journal, not only because of the costs but also because several new neurosurgical journals had been formed recently and, as a consequence, a lack of high quality papers was antici- pated. Attempts to acquire Surgical Neurology as the official Federation Journal proved unsatisfactory. Finally, as no sound solution had been found to continue the Bulletin, it had to be discontinued after eighteen years and twenty-one issues. By the end of 1980, the last issue had been sent to approximately seven thousand, five hundred members worldwide. The Editor was empowered to explore the possi- bility of taking two pages per issue of international neurosurgical journals for Fed- eration news and announcements. Several journals, including Surgical Neurology, Acta Neurochirurgica, the French journal: Neurochirurgie, the Japanese Neurosurgical Journal, and the Russian Neurosurgical Jour- nal, agreed to publish the Federation news without charge. It was the Edi- tor’s task to collect the Federation news and circulate it to the various journals. The second vice-presidents were asked to collect interesting news in their respective areas and send it to the Editor. News Circulars and Newsletters In order to keep the members of the Administrative Council and other officers of the Federation, including the Honorary Presidents, up-to-date on actual points to be considered and other news, a typed News Circular or later Newsletter was distributed by the Editor of Federation News beginning in July 1982. These Cover of Newsletter of the wfns chapter 3 158 159 Newsletter, special edition Cover heading Federation News circulars were to be sent out twice a year. In the beginning they were also mailed to each member society but in 1983 Dr. Scoville informed the Executive Committee that the costs of these mailings, us $ 5,000 a year, were too high. He recommended that the news be published in condensed form in the principal journals which were willing to do so. In 1987, it was decided that the Secretary of the Federation should send one copy of the Newsletter to the Secretaries of all member societies so that they might use it in their newsletters. On 25th February 1984, Dr. Scoville, Editor of Federation News since 1963, suddenly passed away. He was succeeded by Dr. W.H. Mosberg (usa) who acted as the Editor until 1989. Thereafter, the office was subsequently filled by Dr. J. Pickard (uk, 1989-1997), Dr. E. Karol (Argentina, 1997-2001) and Dr. A. Kaye (Australia, 2001-2005). In 1993, following an initiative of the Editor, J. Pickard, a special issue of the Newsletter, printed by Cambridge University Press, was published on the occasion chapter 3 158 159 publications of the wfns of the International Congress in Acapulco. This issue included a short historical review of the Federation by the Historian, Dr. W. Luyendijk (The Netherlands), and the Secretary, Dr. S. Mullan (usa), an explanation of the organization of the World Federation by Dr.

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